Romney Flips on Iraq

Mitt Romney charged today that the Bush administration mismanaged the Iraq war after the initial invasion five years ago.

“I think we did a less than effective job in managing the conflict following the collapse of Saddam Hussein," Romney said at a press conference, according to the Associated Press. “I think we were under prepared for what occurred, understaffed, under planned, and, in some respects, under managed.”

This is the same Mitt Romney who has relentlessly hounded Mike Huckabee–with considerable effect in the polls–for offering a critique of the administration just three weeks ago.

Huckabee’s crime was to suggest that the Bush administration had fallen victim to a “bunker mentality” in some of its diplomatic efforts.

Romney demanded that Huckabee apologize to Bush and repeatedly railed against Huckabee’s comment. “I said, did this come from Barack Obama?” he told an Iowa crowd in mid-December. “Or from Hillary Clinton? Did it come from John Edwards? No, it was one of our own. It was Governor Huckabee.”

And Romney has played the loyalty card repeatedly since then, including today, when he attacked Huckabee in Iowa by saying, “I think we should come together and recognize the great work our president is doing and not take our rhetoric or our plays from Democratic playbook. This is the kind of stuff you expect of the Democrats, but it’s certainly not something you expect of a presidential contender on the Republican side.”